This very European city is populated by frightened and desperate American immigrants, and sits under the shadow of a vast, brutalist skyscraper that is consuming the urban sprawl with crawling walls of blue steel. The world is infested with head-crab zombies and the aliens that were once your enemies now co‑exist amongst the oppressed masses. The crossover with Xen has meant that things have altered radically, with hyper-technology existing alongside eastern bloc dereliction. The events of Black Mesa have affected the whole world. This is not the contemporary America that Gordon seemed to be living in during the original Half-Life. And from there? Well, that would be telling. Gordon arrives at the central station at City 17-a disruptive and chilling dystopia. There are no cutscenes, no moment in which you are anything but utterly embedded in Gordon's view of the world. Once again we never leave his perspective. Key to this is the way in which Gordon's tale is told. We're going to talk about general processes and the elements of style and design that make Half-Life 2 such an energising experience. It would be madness for me to spoil this game by talking about the specific turn of events, so spoilers are going to be kept to a minimum. The polish and the stratospheric height of the production values mean that Half-Life 2 is a magnificent, dramatic experience that has few peers. Half-Life 2 is a linear shooter with most of the refinements one would expect from years of work, but it is also a game of a higher order of magnitude than any of the previous pretenders to the throne. But that simple summation undersells how the Valve team have approached this task. It takes almost everything that worked from Half-Life and either improves on it, or keeps it much the same. It is the definitive statement of the last five years of first-person shooters. Half-Life 2 is an astounding accomplishment. It was then that I knew for certain: Valve had surpassed not only themselves, but everyone else too. My nervous fingers reloaded the level, knowing that I had to see that breathtaking sequence one more time. I chuckled in muddled disbelief, expectations utterly defied.

I couldn't believe it was quite this good. It was all in that moment when I just sat back and laughed. So there it is, one of the greatest PC games in history.

Half life 2 barney cat